Conventional dryers, especially clothes dryer, typically work by drawing in ambient air and heating the ambient air before passing it through a tumbler. During its passage through the tumbler, the hot air evaporates water and increases in humidity]. Conventional dryers include, but are not limited to, vented forced air dryers, spin dryers, condensation dryers, heat pump dryers, and mechanical steam compression dryers.
Vented Forced Air Dryers
Vented forced air dryers use a fan or pump to direct heated air through a tumbling drum. The heated air heats clothing in the drum to a sufficient degree that a vapor pressure of water in/on the fabric increases and a relative humidity of air in the drum increase. A vent releases humidified air from the drum to dry the fabric.
Spin Dryers
Spin dryers are often used in commercial laundries to “pre-dry” fabric. Spin dryers employ centrifugal force, as opposed to heat, to extract water from fabric. Although spinning alone does not completely dry fabric, this additional step can reduce total energy consumption.
Condensation Dryers
Condensation dryers pass heated air through the tumbler and employ a passive heat exchanger, or condenser, to cool the air and condense the water vapor into either a drain pipe or a collection tank. Dehumidified air can then be recycled through the tumbler. Typically, condensation conventional condensation dryers use more energy and take longer to dry fabric than vented dryers.
Heat Pump Dryers
These dryers are similar to condensation dryers except that they use a heat pump instead of a passive heat exchanger. Heat pump dryers are typically more energy efficient than condensation or vented forced air dryers.
Mechanical Steam Compression Dryers
Mechanical steam compression dryers are a relatively recent improvement. Steam compression dryers heat the tumbler and its contents to 100° C. This releases steam which purges the system of air and becomes the sole atmosphere in the system.
The steam is then released from the tumbler and mechanically compressed to extract water vapor and transfer the heat of vaporization to remaining gaseous steam. This produces pressurized gaseous steam which is allowed to expand and is superheated before being injected back into the tumbler where its heat causes more water to vaporize from the clothing, creating more wet steam and restarting the cycle.Typically, dryers of this type are similar in energy efficiency to heat pump dryers although they can sometimes achieve shorter drying times.
The microwave oven is a ubiquitous feature in modern society. However, its limitations are well known. These include, for example uneven heating and slow absorption of heat, especially for defrosting. In fact, ordinary microwave ovens, when used for defrosting and even heating, result in foods in which the outside is generally warm or even partly cooked before the interior is defrosted.
A number of papers have been published in which a theoretical analysis of the problem of warming of a cryogenic sample has been carried out. Because of the difficulties of such analysis, such analysis has only been carried out on regular shapes, such as spherical, and ellipsoidal shapes. Experimental attempts have apparently been made on kidney sized specimens, but results of these experiments do not indicate that a viable solution for defrosting kidneys is available.
Moreover, there does not appear to be a solution for defrosting other organs or foods of more arbitrary shapes.
Prior art publications include:    S. Evans, Electromagnetic Rewarming: The effect of CPA concentration and radio source frequency on uniformity and efficiency of heating, Cryobiology 40 (2000) 126-138.    S. Evans, et al., Design of a UHF applicator for rewarming of cryopreserved biomaterials, IEEE Trans. Biomed. Eng. 39 (1992) 217-225.    M. P. Robinson, et al., Rapid electromagnetic warming of cells and tissues, IEEE Trans. Biomed. Eng. 46 (1999) 1413-1425.    M. P. Robinson, et al., Electromagnetic re-warming of cryopreserved tissues: effect of choice of cryoprotectant and sample shape on uniformity of heating, Phys. Med. Biol. 47 (2002) 2311-2325.    M. C. Wusteman, Martin et al., Vitrification of large tissues with dielectric warming biological problems and some approaches to their solution, Cryobiology 48 (2004) 179-189.
A paper entitled “Control of Thermal Runaway and Uniformity of Heating in the Electromagnetic Warming of a Cryopreserved Kidney Phantom” by J. D. J. Penfold, et al., in Cryobiology 30 , 493-508 (1993) describes a theoretical analysis and experimental results. While some experiments were apparently made with a kidney sized phantom, the main reported results are with a uniform spherical object.
As reported a cavity was fed with electromagnetic energy at 434 MHz from three orthogonal directions (x, y, z). The x and y feeds were provided from a same generator and a phase change was introduced so that the field was circularly polarized. The frequency was varied in steps of 32 kHz (apparently up to about 350 kHz maximum) to match the input impedance as it changed with increasing temperature.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,249,710 describes using a zip code to estimate elevation and modify microwave oven operation.
All of the above articles and publications are incorporated herein by reference.